Here we go again: Phils, Dodgers meet up in NLCS

LOS ANGELES — Back in the era of cookie-cutter stadiums, polyester pullovers and artificial turf, baseball had another familiar sight: Phillies vs. Dodgers for the NL pennant.

“It seemed like every time we turned around, there were the Phillies,” former Los Angeles center fielder Rick Monday recalled.

They played in the 1977 NL championship series and the next year, too. Both times, Tom Lasorda and the Dodgers won the best-of-five matchup in four games.

Decked out in powder-blue uniforms, Philadelphia did better in the 1983 NLCS and beat the Dodgers in four.

They’re set to meet again in the NLCS, starting Thursday in Philadelphia.

“Obviously, this series brings back a lot of memories and just rekindles those games we had with them,” said former Phillies shortstop Larry Bowa, now the Dodgers’ third-base coach. “We couldn’t beat them those two years that I played, but they were good, competitive series and we just came up short.”

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Bowa will see a familiar face across the field. Former Dodgers second baseman Davey Lopes is the Phillies’ first-base coach.

Eight players appeared in all three series between the teams, including Phillies star third baseman Mike Schmidt, pitchers Steve Carlton and Ron Reed and center fielder Garry Maddox.

Four Dodgers played in each one: shortstop Bill Russell, catcher Steve Yeager, left fielder Dusty Baker and Monday, in his 15th full season as one of the team’s broadcasters.

“To this day, Larry Bowa and I talk about some of the games we played against one another,” Monday said. “There was such a respect that I had for Larry and some of the other Phillies, because it was the truest sense of competition on one of the biggest stages that you can play on — the postseason. Now we have a chance to reflect on it a little bit more.”

Led by Carlton, the Phillies brought plenty of pitching. Their arms were not the only thing that made an impression on Monday.

“We also knew they had a pitching staff that, if they were in street clothes, would look like an NBA team traveling through the airport,” he said.

Ron Reed, who played two seasons with the Detroit Pistons, was the tallest member of manager Danny Ozark’s 1977 staff at 6-foot-6. Jim Kaat, Jim Lonborg and Carlton all were 6-5. Larry Christenson was 6-4, an inch taller than Randy Lerch and Warren Brusstar.

Carlton and Tommy John matched up in Games 1 and 4 that year. The series clincher was played in a steady rain, and John outdueled the Phillies’ ace 4-1 at Veterans Stadium to give Lasorda a pennant in his first season after replacing Walter Alston as manager.

“Tommy went nuts and let a lot of emotion out after that game,” Monday said. “You have to realize, there was a great deal of attention focused upon Tommy since day one of spring training on how he was going to fill the shoes of a Hall of Fame manager. Well, he filled them very well. He filled them with a Hall of Fame career of his own.”

Lasorda and his players were soaked way before they got their hands on the champagne bottles in the clubhouse. A number of Phillies players felt the game should have been postponed because of the elements.

“It was ridiculous, playing that game. But we had to play it because of TV and how much they get for broadcasting those games,” Bowa said. “We thought before it even started that it shouldn’t have been played. I mean, (then-NL President) Chub Feeney was sitting in the stands without a raincoat, and he was just drenched. But once it started, the rain was the last thing on your mind, really.”

Monday defended Feeney’s decision to let the game continue.

“It wasn’t a driving rain, it was just a very annoying rain,” he said. “But if we didn’t finish that game, the weather forecast was deplorable and then it would come down to how long would we have to wait to finish the game. Had it been on something other than AstroTurf, that game probably would have been called.”

Longtime Phillies fans also remember the previous day at the Vet — especially that fly ball to left field.

Philadelphia took a 5-3 lead into the ninth and Manny Mota, now a Dodgers coach, hit a drive that sent left fielder Greg Luzinski — a slugger nicknamed “The Bull” — to the wall. The ball bounced off Luzinski’s glove for an RBI double, the key hit of the inning.

“For some reason, (Ozark) didn’t pull Bull for defense and put in Jerry Martin, which we did it all year,” Bowa said. “It was a fly ball. Bull was a big guy, so he didn’t get back to the wall quickly enough. And when he jumped, he hit the wall. Martin was very athletic, and he would have been camped under that ball. Greg took it very hard. In Philadelphia, they call it ’Black Friday.’ But you never blame one guy.”